Jay Greene calls for more perspective on McKay special education scholarships in Florida. Couple of thoughts on this one. I happen to think all families should be able to choose the public schools they want to attend. So this strategy of using special education students as a stalking horse on school choice has never sat well with me (and under federal law students with exceptional special needs can attend private programs at public expense now to make sure their educational needs/rights are met). That said, the McKay program has not led to the kind of skimming that seemed plausible when the legislation was first passed (I have not looked at data from similar programs elsewhere). But, there have been problems with McKay and some oversight issues – people close to the program and even many supporters and supportive policymakers acknowledge that. And guess what? Across public education there are oversight issues and abuses in all kinds of schools and programs, it’s a big system. Unfortunately, our tribal political debate doesn’t allow for that kind of nuance and public school critics like to circulate one kind of abuse, reform critics another when the reality is at once more complicated – and offers more common ground.

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